Sosei Subsidiaries Heptares to Acquire G7 Therapeutics to Extend
Leadership in GPCR-focused Drug Discovery and Development

November 29, 2016 08:53 PM Eastern Standard Time

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sosei Group Corporation (“Sosei”; TOKYO Mothers Index: 4565) today
announces that Heptares Therapeutics (“Heptares”), the wholly-owned
subsidiary of Sosei, has signed a share purchase agreement that will
allow the acquisition of 100% in G7 Therapeutics, a privately held drug
discovery and development company based in Switzerland, for CHF 12
million cash. The strategic acquisition broadens and strengthens
Heptares’ intellectual property and platform for structure-based drug
design and development focused on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs), a
superfamily of receptors linked to a wide range of human diseases. The
combination of Heptares’ and G7 Therapeutics’ platforms is anticipated
to increase Heptares’ R&D productivity in terms of generating stabilised
GPCRs and high quality GPCR structures that underpin discovery efforts
for its proprietary pipeline and for partners.

G7 Therapeutics has developed proprietary approaches for stabilising
GPCRs (called SaBRE and CHESS), which are different and highly
complementary to the StaR® platform developed by Heptares. SaBRE and
CHESS are of particular use where the target GPCR is present in very low
numbers on cells and the methods are particularly powerful in the
numbers of stabilizing mutations that can be identified in a short time
for rapidly generating high quality GPCRs.

Upon completion of the acquisition, G7 Therapeutics will become a wholly
owned Zurich-based subsidiary of Heptares and will be renamed Heptares
Zurich. The subsidiary will be led by Fiona Marshall, Chief Scientific
Officer at Heptares and at Sosei.

Dr Marshall commented: “We are delighted to complete the acquisition G7
Therapeutics. We believe that the platform G7 has developed is truly
complementary to our StaR platform and will expand our capacity to
explore more of the ‘GPCRome’ to deliver novel candidates against
targeted GPCRs for both our proprietary pipeline and for partnered
programmes. We look forward to welcoming its highly talented team into
Heptares and further extending our leadership advantage in GPCR-focused
SBDD.”

Carlo Bertozzi, CEO of G7 Therapeutics, added: “Heptares has an
impressive track record of technology development resulting in a
world-leading platform that has generated multiple product opportunities
targeting many GPCR targets across diverse disease areas. We are excited
to combine our platforms and capabilities through this transaction and
to further advance GPCR-targeted drug discovery, an area of significant
untapped potential.”

Peter Bains, CEO of Sosei, said: “Approximately 30 percent of approved
medicines in pharmaceutical company portfolios today act by modulating
GPCR activity, making GPCRs one of, if not the most important target
families for drug discovery and a major pillar upon which the global
industry has been built. Heptares has already established a
world-leading position in this area, building a diverse pipeline of
proprietary candidates as well as attracting major pharma company
partners. This acquisition is a further step towards delivering Sosei’s
strategy by consolidating and extending this leadership position, and
expanding our capacity to generate a sustainable pipeline of new drug
candidates for development ourselves in select disease areas, and for
our partners.”

Note

About Heptares TherapeuticsHeptares is a clinical-stage
company creating transformative medicines targeting G protein-coupled
receptors (GPCRs), a superfamily of 375 receptors linked to a wide range
of human diseases. Heptares’ proprietary StaR® technology and
structure-based drug design (SBDD) capabilities enable us to engineer
and develop drugs for highly validated, yet historically undruggable or
challenging GPCRs. Using this approach, we are building an exciting
pipeline of new medicines (small molecules and biologics) with the
potential to transform the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease,
schizophrenia, cancer immune-oncology, migraine, addiction, metabolic
disease and other indications. We have partnerships for our novel
candidates and technologies with leading pharmaceutical and
biotechnology companies, including Allergan, AstraZeneca, Kymab,
MedImmune, MorphoSys, Pfizer and Teva.

HEPTARES is a registered trademark in the EU, Switzerland, US and Japan;StaR®
is a registered trademark in the EU and Japan.

About SoseiSosei is a biopharmaceutical company originating
from Japan but with global presence. Sosei’s primary business model is
based on identifying novel and/or differentiated product assets or
technology platforms and, through supporting these in preclinical and
clinical development and establishing commercial partnerships, advancing
new medicines to patients worldwide. For more information about Sosei,
please visit www.sosei.com/en/.

Forward-looking statementsThis press release contains
forward-looking statements, including statements about the discovery,
development and commercialisation of products. Various risks may cause
Sosei’s actual results to differ materially from those expressed or
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clinical development programmes; failure to obtain patent protection for
inventions; commercial limitations imposed by patents owned or
controlled by third parties; dependence upon strategic alliance partners
to develop and commercialise products and services; difficulties or
delays in obtaining regulatory approvals to market products and services
resulting from development efforts; the requirement for substantial
funding to conduct research and development and to expand
commercialisation activities; and product initiatives by competitors. As
a result of these factors, prospective investors are cautioned not to
rely on any forward-looking statements. We disclaim any intention or
obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether
as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.